Remote access

The most common approach is to set up port forwarding (for any port) from your router to port 8123 on the computer that is hosting Home Assistant. General instructions on how to do this can be found by searching <router model> port forwarding instructions. You can use any free port on your router and forward that to port 8123.

A problem with making a port accessible is that some Internet Service Providers only offer dynamic IPs. This can cause you to lose access to Home Assistant while away. You can solve this by using a free Dynamic DNS service like DuckDNS.

Remember: Just putting a port up is not secure. You should definitely consider encrypting your traffic if you are accessing your Home Assistant installation remotely. For details please check the set up encryption using Let’s Encrypt blog post or this detailed guide to using Let’s Encrypt with Home Assistant.